2013 Topps Heritage Minors box break recap

I made a card shop trip to bust either several packs or splurge for a box - while it might not be a MLB product, I try to hold out for something like the minor league version of Topps Heritage because I feel like there is a chance to get cards of new players, even if they are still plying their trade in the minors.

This product is not without its share of flaws such as Topps using the same images from other products i.e. Jimmy Nelson and his 2013 Topps Pro Debut - it's kind of sneaky how Topps uses the same image, but just slaps on a new template to get a new card.

For the cards that have duplicate images, it would have nice to see an original image used - even if it costs a little more to buy the rights to use more than one image.

Also, more than a handful of players also have had Topps Heritage Minors cards in previous years - I assume there is a checklist planned out way in advance and as redundant as it seems, Topps just wants to have a list they don't have to worry about updating too much.

Too bad any cards of 2013 draft picks are being saved for Bowman Draft and other products - I would have like to see guys like Mark Appel [No.1], Kris Bryant [No. 2], Jonathan Gray [No.3], Clint Frazier [No.5] and Colin Moran [No.6] make their cardboard pro debuts in minor league Heritage.

Back to the actual recap, I got 187/200 of the base 1-200 set along with four dupes - the collation was pretty good and I'm not worried about the following cards I didn't pull since I have a hand collated set coming in.

3 David Dahl
4 JR Murphy
18 Rafael Montero
24 Mike Freeman
43 Tyler Naquin
65 Jake Thompson
78 Bruce Maxwell
98 Roberto Osuna
115 Edward Salcedo
145 Patrick Kivlehan
166 Cesar Hernandez
192 Taylor Jungmann
200 Oscar Taveras

I pulled 19 assorted inserts / parallels

Two Real One autographs; 1:14
#ROA-MA Matt Andriese - the autographs I pulled look fine in-hand, though from the images I posted, it looks like the autograph has bled or smeared on the sticker.
#ROA-BM Brandon Meredith - on card autographs would really be great for this product, though that maybe a pipe dream.

One Commemorative Logo Patch
#MP-JG Joey Gallo - maybe I'd rather pull a manufactured card like this than some random single-swatch game used card of some unknown minor leaguer; at least it looks like there was some effort in putting together cards like these.

Two black bordered parallels; 1:11
#107 Andrew Susac - serial #'d 07/96
#141 Ross Stripling - serial #'d 03/96

One base Venezuelan parallel; 1:24
#108 Enny Romero 

Four SP's; 1:6
#208 Chris Stratton
#212 Chase - That Golden Thunder Bat Dog
#214 Christian Bethancourt
#217 A.J. Jimenez

Six The Road To The Show inserts; 1:4
#RTTS-AM Raul Mondesi
#RTTS-CCR C.J. Cron   
#RTTS-GS Gary Sanchez 
#RTTS-BS Bubba Starling 
#RTTS-TG Taylor Guerrieri 
#RTTS-TA Tyler Austin 

Four 1964 Bazooka inserts; 1:6
#64B-BB Byron Buxton
#64B-GP Greogry Polanco
#64B-KC Kyle Crick
#64B-MD Matt Davidson  

One Be a Pro Player For a Day Contest Card

Four dupes
#46 Corey Oswalt
#130 James Paxton
#133 Trevor May
#190 Brett Bochy

Blog ideals, goals and critiques -
The Wild West that once was known as the Internet, has evolved into something regulated where imposed rules and netiquette serves as the judge, juror and executioner - maybe blogs are the last venues to say anything you want about a hobby like trading cards on the Internet.

Feel free to be agitated and opinionated but you are supposedly writing for a broader audience - don't try to be F this, F that, BS this, BS that.

Certainly, you want to be believe someone is reading your blog - even if there maybe one visitor a day and realistically there is none on most.

The best card blogs seem to be the ones able to go a little off-topic, even though 95 percent of their content is probably trading card related - broaden your interests or at least show an audience, you are more than just cards and graphs, by personalizing some of your posts.

You want to react to current events, because it is what people care about - but don't be obligated to blog about something you've seen on 15-20 other sites already.

Try to have a theme and a centerpiece topic - it helps you focus on a post-by-post basis.

Use images, pictures and multimedia - that one visitor a day likes pretty pictures.

Updates - have a blog schedule.

Any blog post made on your blog is still a contribution to the overall expression of thought - respect that.